Biden awards Presidential Medal of Freedom to Denzel, Messi, Hillary

WASHINGTON: Joe Biden on Saturday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 honorees, bestowing the highest civilian honour in the United States on entertainers, sports stars, activists and diplomats including Jane Goodall and Hillary Clinton.

Among those receiving honors from the outgoing US president were singer and activist Bono, basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, longtime Vogue editor Anna Wintour, soccer superstar Lionel Messi, actors Denzel Washington and Michael J. Fox, and fashion designer Ralph Lauren.

Posthumous recipients included Fannie Lou Hamer, a Black civil rights activist.

In a White House ceremony, Biden praised the group of “truly extraordinary people who gave their sacred effort -- their sacred effort -- to shape the culture and the cause of America.”

Others honored in this year’s crop were chef Jose Andres, founder of the World Central Kitchen NGO, and primate researcher Goodall, a leading environmentalist voice.

Some of the recipients selected by the Democrat have a more political profile.

Clinton is a former first lady, senator and US secretary of state, and unsuccessfully ran against Donald Trump for the presidency in 2016.

She was honored for having “made history many times over decades in public service,” including being the first woman nominated by a major party for a US presidential run, the White House said in a statement.

Also honored was billionaire financier and left-wing philanthropist George Soros, whose award was accepted by his son Alexander.

Soros was honored because he “has supported organizations, and projects across the world that strengthen democracy, human rights, education and social justice.”

Biden also chose to posthumously award a Presidential Medal of Freedom to Robert F. Kennedy.

Kennedy served as US attorney general while his brother John F. Kennedy was president, and was assassinated in 1968 while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“His legacy continues to inspire those committed to justice, equality and public service,” Biden said in a statement ahead of the presentation.

Kennedy’s son RFK Jr. is a vaccine skeptic who has been tapped by president-elect Donald Trump to be the next secretary of Health and Human Services.

Biden’s selections for the Medal of Freedom illustrate a desire to leave one final mark before leaving office.

Also among recipients was former Michigan governor and US housing secretary George Romney, the father of Mitt Romney, one of the few Republican senators who in 2021 voted to convict Trump after he was impeached for inciting an insurrection.

On Thursday, in a slight to Trump, Biden awarded a Presidential Citizens Medal to Liz Cheney, a former Republican congresswoman from Wyoming who sat on the house panel investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection on the US Capitol.

Trump expressed his indignation at the move Friday, calling Cheney, a daughter of former US vice president Dick Cheney, “totally corrupt” and writing on Truth Social that “Biden rewarded her only because she hated “’TRUMP.’”